A woman who became a social media sensation for abusing Bunnings staff for refusing to a wear mask instore over the weekend has been outed.
Initially dubbed “Karen from Bunnings”, the woman’s actual name is Kerry Nash, however, she reportedly goes by other pseudonyms on social media
As reported on B&T yesterday, Nash stormed into a Melbourne Bunnings store over the weekend, refused to wear a mask, threatened to sue staff and was later handcuffed by police.
Footage of her allegedly abusing an Australia Post employee over its mask policy has also since surfaced.
There are media reports this morning that Nash plans to sue police after she claimed officers had “assaulted” her while handcuffing her. Nash wasn’t taken into custody by police.
Nash posting to social media last night: “We will be taking legal action against the police. If anyone comes across any other videos online please share with me. They will only support my legal defence as we didn’t do anything wrong.” She even thanked people for their “wonderful support”.
Nash has also put up a sign out the front of her home in Melbourne’s south-east warning waiting media about trespassing on her property and has even called police on the journalists outside her home.
Nash’s identity was made public after her LinkedIn profile was tracked down. On the profile (which has since been deleted), Nash claimed to be an iSelect senior sales consultant employed at the company since 2012.
In the profile she wrote she had a “demonstrated history of working in the consumer services industry” and experience in customer service and coaching.
The Australian is reporting Nash left the business in Decemeber 2018 (for reasons unknown) with iSelect even issuing a statement yesterday that said it was “appalled” by its ex-employee’s behaviour over the weekend.
“Kerry Nash has not worked for iSelect since December ‘18,” the statement read. “We are appalled by #BunningsKaren’s refusal to wear a mask without a legitimate reason.
“We fully comply with COVID restrictions and any staff unable to WFH must wear a mask in our office, in accordance with the guidelines,” the statement read.
This morning, News Corp’s The Daily Telegraph labelled Nash as an “out of control neighbour from hell”.
The Tele interviewing some of Nash’s neighbours who described her as “having frequent parties and loud music, while the fire brigade had attended for her big backyard bonfires”.
One unnammed neighbour adding: “This is nothing new for her, she is always banging on about how she’s gonna sue police and always argues with them.
“She acts all tough and goes on and on about all that law shit and her human rights,” the neighbour revealed.
Sadly, Nash’s behavior isn’t an isolated one with a number of Victorians refusing to wear a mask.
Yesterday, Victoria Police deputy commissioner Rick Nugent slammed the behaviour as “selfish” and “childish”.
“Thankfully this selfish behaviour is an exception and the vast majority of people are doing the right thing to protect the health and safety of our community,” Nugent said.
“However, the behaviour of those who blatantly choose to disregard the rules on the insistence their human rights being breached is alarming.
“Worse yet, it seems these people are more interested in notoriety and getting likes on social media than the health and wellbeing of their fellow Victorians.
“My message to anyone planning to break the rules is simple: no one has a human right to infect other people and place the entire Victoria community at risk.
“In fact, this type of behaviour is childish and is completely unacceptable when police are working incredibly hard to keep the community safe,” the officer said.
